AZTECS, GWYNN HAVE HARD CHOICES TO MAKE, SOONER THAN LATER

LAS VEGAS 
Tony Gwynn was in no mood to talk about much beyond deciding on today’s starting pitcher.

“Next question,” he said Friday evening in response to every query about his future in the San Diego State dugout or the Padres front office.

Gwynn doesn’t pass on questions too often. Only Philip Rivers could give him a run as history’s most loquacious San Diego superstar.

“I said what I said,” Gwynn exclaimed Friday, referring to his comments earlier this week about joining a group seeking to buy the Padres while being noncommittal about his SDSU gig.

Of course, he went on to make it clear that my column 10 days prior opining that such a move would be a nice way for him to ease out of a bad situation at SDSU was the overriding factor in our postgame conversation consisting of no fewer than six “Next questions” and one closing “Do what you have to do; I’ll do what I have to do.”

I might call Jack Clark and see what it’s like to have one of the nicest people in the world mad at you.

Gwynn is mainly upset I didn’t do my research on anything beyond wins and losses and that I wouldn’t know what’s going on in his program because I haven’t been at his games.

I countered to him with the same thing I wrote before: one NCAA Regionals appearance in 10 years is not acceptable.

Gwynn’s young team rebounded from the previous day’s 16-15 loss to TCU to beat UNLV 15-9 in an elimination game of the Mountain West Tournament on Friday. The Aztecs (25-33) would need to win twice today and once more Sunday to earn the conference’s automatic NCAA bid.

You have to like the fact that four Aztecs freshmen accounted for nine RBI and a fifth (Michael Cederoth) pitched the final four innings for the win.

Whether Gwynn will be the one to guide this group beyond this weekend is an unknown.

Gwynn said he would not give me “the satisfaction” of talking about his future. And my conversation with SDSU Athletic Director Jim Sterk on Thursday revealed Sterk is waiting until after the season to decide the future of his baseball program.

“That’s a question I will sit down with Tony about at the end of the year — where is he?” Sterk said. “He’s a great person. He understands baseball, but our program needs his full attention.”

Sterk’s primary issue to be resolved, it seemed, was the effect of Gwynn having aligned himself with Thomas Tull, the movie mogul trying to buy the Padres.

Tull’s group is among at least five prospective Padres purchasers. A sale is expected to be agreed upon by the end of this season.

Gwynn told U-T San Diego on Monday that he is “all in. I’m committed to this group.” Gwynn’s agent, John Boggs, added: “Tull wants Tony to be in his group in a substantial capacity ... a role that Tony wants. He wants Tony’s counsel. This is not a public relations move.”